May 15, 2005 John 16:5-11
“Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
When I went to the Seminary we had to take a class on counseling. In it we learned the basics of how to try and help people through their problems through communication and the ability to talk. Whereas the class was helpful in learning the art of communication, in some senses I felt a little messed up by it all. It seemed like two farmers sitting beside a pile of manure.
One says to the other, “how did the manure get here?”
The other says, “I think Bessie left it here.”
“It looks kind of nasty.”
“It don’t smell too good either.”
“Yea, I wonder what she’s been eatin.”
“Let’s examine her food. We’ll sample it and try to change it to make the manure more healthy lookin.”
“Yeah, then we can continue to examine this to see if it can smell better.”
So they go off to try and deal the source of the manure, but never actually take the shovel and clean it up.
My point is that you can counsel and counsel and talk about the how and the why of your actions and feelings, but ultimately, that won’t do the deep cleaning. There are many mental problems that do need counseling and also need specially prescribed drugs - to help people straighten out their thinking. It does work when it comes to that. Yet I also believe that this has now progressed to the point that psychology and counseling has become the cure all for everything. Why is the man attracted to children? Get a counselor to straighten him out. Why did the boy decide to attack his parents with a knife? Let’s get a counselor and find out. Ok. Then what? Do the drugs always work? Does the counseling always provide a solution? Even if the person realizes how his or her thinking was messed up, that doesn’t address a deeper need - for repentance and faith. If I dismiss every thought and action as an illness that drugs or counseling can cure, I’m not getting to the deeper issues of sin and grace. We need these issues not just from a mental aspect, but more importantly from a spiritual aspect.
Why do I bring this up? In today’s text, on this Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Spirit is called a “Counselor.” That does not mean He’s here to examine our minds and just get us to understand our feelings. He’s not here to fix our brains. He’s here to mend our souls and our hearts. The disciples had just had their hearts broken. Jesus told them that He was leaving them - by dying on a cross and then ascending into heaven. The disciples were thinking to themselves, “how could this be? How will we be able to survive without our Teacher, our Mentor, our Savior, and our Friend? This simple statement struck them at their very hearts and souls. They felt like Jesus was deserting them. That’s when Jesus promised - not a miracle drug - or a Dr. Phil or an Oprah - but the Holy Spirit - to help them through the rest of their lives “without” Jesus. He would provide the “Counseling.”
How does He do this? Jesus said, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. This seems like a very strange kind of counseling, wouldn’t you say? In the worlds eyes, this whole concept of religion is the REASON for depression and mental illness - using GUILT! Yet Jesus says that the Holy Spirit - whom He would send - counsels by convicting the world of guilt. What does this mean? How does this help anyone? Today we’ll see how, as we consider how -
The Counselor Comes to Convict
I. In regard to sin
In the past few decades there has been an all out attack on sin. What is really a sin anymore? Is a child molester just a “sick” individual, or is he not also a terribly sinful individual? One gal said to my wife about having sexual relations with her boyfriend, “I guess that’s not very Christian of me, is it?” Not very Christian? It’s a sin that can damn you to hell. When children mouth of to their parents, they aren’t “just being kids.” Their being sinful - their dishonoring God and breaking the Fourth Commandment. Sin is still sin. David said, “I was sinful at birth” (Psalm 51:5). But some say God doesn’t really hold them accountable for that kind of sin. What happened to the attitude of Joseph who said to Potiphar’s wife, “how could I do such a WICKED thing and sin against God?” The things that have become acceptable to Americans and the world - that should be seemingly obviously evil from their very consciences - have almost completely been eradicated by our society. There seems to be a logical excuse for everything - of why it’s ok or why it happened - a diagnose on everything.
But the sin that the Holy Spirit has come to convict is a different kind of sin. It isn’t a seemingly obvious sin like greed or laziness or adultery and the like. It’s deeper than that - something that nobody could tell without a revelation from the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come to convict the world of guilt - in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me. The specific sin that the Holy Spirit has come to convict and reveal is the sin of unbelief. The greatest sin that you can commit against God, is to say you don’t want or don’t need His gift of Christ.
This is impossible for the world to see. Look at it this way. Imagine if you had planned for an eternity and worked a lifetime to give one gift to someone. Imagine if you for instance found the cure for cancer, after having studied your whole life to find the cure. Imagine if you went to someone and offered them one little pill to take - and promised them they would live with that pill - and they told you that you were a crackpot - or accused you of trying to kill them with the pill. What if they took the pill, but never swallowed it? Wouldn’t you have a right to be angry with them? The ultimate “sin” for them - the reason they would die of the cancer, could be rooted not to the cancer, which had a cure, but to the rejection of the cure.
That’s what the Holy Spirit is here to convict people of - to show. The Holy Spirit is here to show people that the worst sin a person can commit - the only sin that really ends up damning - is the sin of unbelief. The worst sin you can commit against God is to say, “I don’t want Christ,” or “I don’t need Christ.” The Holy Spirit does not say, “it’s ok, you believe what you believe, we’ll believe what we believe.” He says, “you need to repent and believe in Christ. Without faith in Him, you will be guilty of the greatest sin against God. You will be damned.” This is the first part of His “Counseling.” The plain and simple truth of the Scriptures is what Jesus said in John 14. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. NO ONE can come to the Father EXCEPT through HIM. I can’t convince anyone of that truth. That truth goes much deeper than the brain. No amount of human counseling can convict you of that truth. The Holy Spirit has to do it.
II. In regard to righteousness
The reason the world cannot understand the importance of faith in Jesus is because it does not understand what God considers righteousness. What is righteousness? Righteousness, in the eyes of the world - has to do with visible things - things that they do and things they can see. It is nicely explained by Dr. Laura. Every time she leaves her radio program she says, “now go do the right thing.” Feed the poor. Raise your children to say “please” and “thank you.” Make sure they work hard. Be a good and a nice person, and then you will be “righteous”.
Within religion this is called “living the golden rule.” The difference is that the aspect of God is added to it. Consider the story of Jesus and an expert in the law in Luke 10. “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered: ”‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” If you want to be righteousness, love God and love your neighbor. Do righteous things for God. Say nice things about God. Study God’s Word. Take the Lord’s Supper. Give to church. Be righteous.
The problem with this kind of righteousness is spelled out in Proverbs 16:25. It says, There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. Isaiah also wrote in Isaiah 64:6, All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. The second tier of the Holy Spirit’s work is to convict the world of guilt - in regard to righteousness. In God’s Word - the Holy Spirit cries out, “no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20) You want to be righteous? Being a good guy isn’t going to do it! You want to be righteous - giving money isn’t going to do it. Going to church isn’t going to cut it! God is holy. He demands more! In Matthew 5:48 Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” James 2:10 says, “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” Romans 3:23 therefore declares that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The Holy Spirit uses these demands to convict the world of guilt. The Holy Spirit’s job is to convince us that this is NOT the way to righteousness. The Holy Spirit’s job is to convince us that even the greatest of us is only deserving of hell.
What kind of counseling is that? What good does it do? It forces us then, to look for righteousness SOMEWHERE ELSE. Jesus tells us where to look. He said that righteousness is “because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;” Righteousness is intimately and ultimately connected to Jesus going to the Father. What does that mean? Well, how did Jesus get to the Father? Jesus went to the Father by being deserted by the Father. He went to heaven by going to hell first. Before He was ever glorified, He was first of all crucified. Jesus had to go through the most difficult path of all to get to the Father. He had a mountain of God’s laws to climb, an impossible wall of God’s wrath to conquer, heavy sea of sin to be bathed in, and an invincible enemy of death. Yet when Jesus went to the cross - He climbed on the cross, He crumbled the wall of wrath, and He conquered death. He went to the Father through obeying God’s will. Paul wrote to the Romans in 5:18-19, “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. Peter also wrote in his first letter, chapter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. When Christ then ultimately went to the Father, after his resurrection - it proved to us that our righteousness was completed.
Paul - through faith - said that he wanted to “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” Who could ever imagine such a thing? The only source of righteousness is in the life and death and resurrection of Christ - who now invisibly lives in heaven. There’s no way that any of us could have found this righteousness - because it is beyond our sight - beyond our deeds - in the very realms of heaven. This conviction comes from one source - the Counselor - who reveals it to us and gives us faith in Jesus.
III. In regard to judgment
The third tier of the Holy Spirit’s work is “in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” Judgment is the pronouncing of what is right and wrong. The prince of this world - Satan - likes to think of himself as the author of what is right and wrong. In his mind, I believe he is convinced that he is the truly righteous one - that he knows the difference between right and wrong. Throughout Scriptures you can see him trying to play the role of the judge. For instance consider the story of Job. He said to God, Job 1:9-11 “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” Satan was accusing God of spoiling Job - making it easy for him. In his mind, true justice would be served if Job could prove himself. Another example is in Jude, where it says that the archangel Michael. . . was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses. It appears in this instance that Satan was arguing over it was “fair” that Moses body would be raised from the dead prior to the resurrection from the dead. Consider also Revelation 12:10 which calls him, “the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night.” The picture I get of Satan is almost a holier than thou type of person - someone who loves to point out the faults of everyone else and blame God for all of his problems. He loves to find out all of the “inconsistencies” of God and try to make God out to be the most unfair Person in the world.
If you look at Satan in this way, can’t you see then how and why he is called the “prince of this world.” Everything that Satan does - that whole attitude of wanting to be the judge and the accuser - is the attitude of the world. Their version of righteousness is that you’ve got to earn it. Their version of justice is that there should be NOTHING for free - no grace - no forgiveness. They love to show how sinful Christians are and how hypocritical they all seem to be. Everyone should have to pay for their OWN sins. Everyone should have to earn their OWN way. How dare you preach a FREE salvation! How dare you say that there is hell without Christ! Where is the JUSTICE?
You know what the Holy Spirit says? He can judge all he wants, but the prince of this world has lost! He now stands condemned! If you want to side with his sense of justice - to have to earn your sentence - then you’ll be condemned too. Yet when we look at what the Holy Spirit says in the Scriptures - the facts are clear. Jesus declared us not guilty on the cross. It doesn’t matter if Satan doesn’t think it’s FAIR. God is the judge, not Satan. Jesus - the Judge said, “IT IS FINISHED” on the cross. This is what God calls TRUE JUSTICE. This is where God’s anger over sin has been paid for - because JESUS paid the price. No accusation of Satan can change that declaration of the Judge. When Jesus rose from the dead, the Scriptures say that he “has been hurled down . . and overcome . .by the blood of the Lamb.” (Re 12:10-11) The Holy Spirit has brought this condemnation on the prince, and this conviction in our hearts. Jesus is our JUSTICE.
When the disciples were left with the prospect of finishing their lives without Jesus on earth, they felt deserted and in despair at first - like sheep that would be without a Shepherd. We live in an age where people live that way every day. They don’t know what to believe. They don’t know what to do. All they can come up with is some nice terms like, “You believe what you believe. You do what you do. I’ll do what I do. What’s right for me, may not be right for you.” It’s led to the acceptance of we now call “alternate lifestyles,” same sex marriages, and a whole onslaught of other problems. It’s also led to many convicts getting away with murder and all sorts of crime. Why? Because in spite of the counseling, there isn’t much conviction anymore, a majority of the world therefore, is sadly lost in a land of “I don’t know.” They’re like sheep without a Shepherd.
Jesus assured the disciples they would not be alone. They would be given a Counselor - the Holy Spirit. The Counselor’s job would be to convict them with the Truth. That’s what the Holy Spirit has done with us. He has convicted us of sin, righteousness, and justice. We know we’re sinful. We know we’re not righteous. We know we deserve God’s justice. Yet the Counselor has also shown us where all of these convictions come together - at one place, the cross, the cross and the cross. Only in the cross do we see sin paid for. Only in the cross do we find our righteousness. Only in the cross do we see God’s kind of justice. With this Counseling it brings us joy in the face of sadness and hope in the midst of despair - confidence to face this life without Jesus physically standing by our side. Thank God, then, for our Counselor - the Holy Spirit - who convicts us with the truth and fills us with the confidence to go on. Amen.
